Getting the Soda Monkey off My Back
by Carla Ulbrich • New Jersey

If I were to only change one thing about my diet, this is it: eliminate excitotoxins. What is an excitotoxin? The most common culprits are MSG and aspartame (aka NutraSweet, Equal, and AminoSweet). Siegfried Schmidt, MD, claims to have completely cured numerous patients of fibromyalgia sim-ply by eliminating excitotoxins from their diets.

After being warned repeatedly by various health practitioners about the dangers of aspartame, I have finally ended my decades-long romance with diet sodas. I tell you, it’s like quitting heroin – without the “glamour.” I honestly can’t recall how many times I tried to quit drinking diet soda before I finally succeeded, and I still fear I’ll fall off the wagon. So every time I look at a cold, dripping, tempting bottle of diet something, I tell myself “poison.”

There are all kinds of accusations flying around about aspartame. Some say it turns into formaldehyde when it gets into your body. Some say it turns into formaldehyde before it enters the body, if the tem-perature is warm enough (99°F). Aspartame has been implicated in causing kidney problems, cancer, lupus, fibromyalgia, MS, birth defects, tumors, seizures, Gulf War Syndrome, and (ironically) weight gain, among other problems. Yikes! It may be tasty, but nothing is that tasty. If these links are real, then this “food” has no place in our diets, in our fridges, in our stores, or in our food chain.

How many of the accusations are true, I’m not sure, although there are an astounding number of studies out on aspartame. (Google it!) But I do know this: there are very few casual diet soda drinkers. Mostly, people either don’t drink it, or they chain-drink it like a crack addict, waking up with their first thought being, “I gotta have me a hit of diet soda.” I have ridden my bicycle to the store in my pajamas to get a Diet Coke before I would do anything else. It was ruling my day, every day. And I also know this: I no longer drink diet soda or consume anything with aspartame in it – including chewing gum, candy, or even prescrip-tions and vaccines – and I don’t have migraines anymore. Coincidence? I’m not willing to find out. There’s nothing of any value in aspartame that I need. There’s no good case for continuing to consume it and a lot of evidence advising against doing so.

I find that getting a monkey off your back is more doable if you can find some replacement. I mean, I wasn’t going to go caffeine-free on top of ditching the tyrannical NutraSweet. One vice at a time. Unfortunately, some studies suggest that the other artificial sweeteners are probably not much better for you. If you need a sweetener, try honey, molasses, stevia or rice syrup (although sugar is “better” than aspartame, it also has its own problems).

If I really feel like partying, I have a regular Coke. But I don’t do that too often, because it is made with high-fructose corn syrup, which is genetically modified (and fattening, and of no nutritional value). I may not be Heidi Klum, but I am not ready to have my genes modified – and something tells me consuming genetically modified foods is not going to get me any closer to looking like Heidi.

There are some natural sodas out there, made with juice. And there’s seltzer, which is great plain or with a splash of organic juice (read the label, though – some seltzer contains NutraSweet!). I drink a lot of home-brewed green tea with raw honey. Of course, there’s always plain water. Remember water? Mankind did pretty well for several eons without sodas to drink.

Reprinted with permission of Tell Me Press, LLC

Comic singer-songwriter Carla Ulbrich has taken her music and love of word-play all over the United States and England. She has appeared on USA TV, the BBC, Dr. Demento, The Bob and Sherrie Show, and Sirius XM Radio. Carla has recorded five CDs. Visit her at www.thesingingpatient.com.